Put one crab in a bucket and it can climb out of that bucket. No, it will climb out of it.
Now put two crabs in that same bucket. If one of those crabs tries to climb out of it, the other one will pull it back in. None of them will ever escape the bucket.
The possibility of escaping that damn bucket doesn't really matter, the crabs will hold themselves back from escaping it.
Crazy crabs, right?
Well, actually it's not too different with humans.
While I came across the term Crabs in a Bucket mentality in the topic of weight loss (on Reddit), and how differently some people treat people who lost a lot of weight, I think this term actually fits to pretty much every area in life.
If it's the obese guy at the office making jokes of you for eating a salad or drinking a protein shake, while at the same time putting the 5th cookie in his hands with the 4th one not even swallowed yet.
Maybe it's your family telling you that hitting the gym 5 times a week to get fit is unhealthy.. and that you should rather order pizza with them tonight.
Or the sheeple herd trying to keep you in their rows, instead of going the "risky" way of building your own life outside of the cubicle.
I think that crabs parable is pretty powerful on itself, so let's keep this post short.
Most of the time this behaviour doesn't even come with bad intentions. It's more like an automatic mechanism to protect the person from feeling bad about him/herself. But no matter the intention, it can be really annoying and frustrating.
One guy in that Reddit discussion put it in quite perfect words:
"Nothing puts someones laziness and lack of self control into focus like watching someone put in the work it takes to change for the better."
Knowing about this type of Crabs in a Bucket mentality makes life a lot easier.
If you're guilty of this behaviour yourself, you should be aware of it by now and be able to get rid of it, no offense but it doesn't do any good to you or others.
If you are the victim of this behaviour, don't let yourself get pulled back down into that damn bucket (aka the cubicle, aka Burger King, aka.. you get the point.)
And because I know you expected an image of crabs in a bucket when you clicked, here you go..
Now put two crabs in that same bucket. If one of those crabs tries to climb out of it, the other one will pull it back in. None of them will ever escape the bucket.
The possibility of escaping that damn bucket doesn't really matter, the crabs will hold themselves back from escaping it.
Crazy crabs, right?
Well, actually it's not too different with humans.
While I came across the term Crabs in a Bucket mentality in the topic of weight loss (on Reddit), and how differently some people treat people who lost a lot of weight, I think this term actually fits to pretty much every area in life.
If it's the obese guy at the office making jokes of you for eating a salad or drinking a protein shake, while at the same time putting the 5th cookie in his hands with the 4th one not even swallowed yet.
Maybe it's your family telling you that hitting the gym 5 times a week to get fit is unhealthy.. and that you should rather order pizza with them tonight.
Or the sheeple herd trying to keep you in their rows, instead of going the "risky" way of building your own life outside of the cubicle.
I think that crabs parable is pretty powerful on itself, so let's keep this post short.
Most of the time this behaviour doesn't even come with bad intentions. It's more like an automatic mechanism to protect the person from feeling bad about him/herself. But no matter the intention, it can be really annoying and frustrating.
One guy in that Reddit discussion put it in quite perfect words:
"Nothing puts someones laziness and lack of self control into focus like watching someone put in the work it takes to change for the better."
Knowing about this type of Crabs in a Bucket mentality makes life a lot easier.
If you're guilty of this behaviour yourself, you should be aware of it by now and be able to get rid of it, no offense but it doesn't do any good to you or others.
If you are the victim of this behaviour, don't let yourself get pulled back down into that damn bucket (aka the cubicle, aka Burger King, aka.. you get the point.)
And because I know you expected an image of crabs in a bucket when you clicked, here you go..
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